Residents of three Erie Independence House facilities are expressing fear and uncertainty after learning the buildings where they live are scheduled for the Erie County Upset Tax Sale later this year because of unpaid property taxes.<\/p>\n
Erie News Now confirmed that three Erie Independence House properties are listed for the September 28 Erie County Upset Tax Sale after multiple years of delinquent taxes. To be removed from the sale list, management would need to pay approximately $124,000 in back taxes.<\/p>\n
The pending tax sale affects about 40 residents, many of whom are people with disabilities who rely on the housing to maintain their independence.<\/p>\n
“I called my mom just crying last night, just panicking about this because I saw the tax sale notices on the pillars,” said longtime resident Laura Van Volkenburg. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”<\/p>\n
Danielle Shealy, who has lived at the West 5th Street facility for seven years, says uncertainty about the future has been overwhelming. “What’s worrying me right now is not knowing my future,” Shealy said. “I’m someone who likes to plan ahead.”<\/p>\n
Residents Say Problems Have Been Growing<\/p>\n
The three affected properties are located on West 5th Street, West 2nd Street, and at East 26th Street and McClelland Avenue.<\/p>\n
Residents and the maintenance supervisor (one of only three remaining employees) say financial troubles have already led to unpaid vendor bills, unpaid utility bills, concerns about potential service shutoffs, and a decline in maintenance.<\/p>\n
Shealy says maintenance issues have continued to worsen because of a lack of staff and funding.<\/p>\n
“Not having that rail to hold my shower head is a really big inconvenience,” she said. “On top of that, our laundry room, where we have two washers and two dryers, is completely down.”<\/p>\n
Van Volkenburg said even basic repairs have become difficult to complete.<\/p>\n
“I know our maintenance has struggled to get the money to fix the roof, to do minor maintenance and even some of the major stuff,” she said.<\/p>\n
Housing Represents Independence<\/p>\n
For residents, the buildings are more than just apartments\u2014they represent years of work toward living independently.<\/p>\n
“It’s like a piece of my dignity, a piece of myself,” Shealy said. “Something that I fought so hard to obtain is being taken away, and having my own apartment is something that I’m so proud of,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Erie Independence House was once considered a pioneer in providing independent living opportunities for people with disabilities and built a strong reputation in the community. Residents say that history makes the current situation even more heartbreaking.<\/p>\n
HUD Opens Investigation<\/p>\n
Employees of Erie Independence House had previously sent multiple letters to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) raising concerns, but received little response.<\/p>\n
After learning Erie News Now was preparing a report, HUD issued the following statement via email to Erie Independence House staff:<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for bringing this to our attention. HUD has opened an investigation, and our team has scheduled a meeting next week to establish our next steps. We are unable to provide comments or discuss the specifics of the investigation until it is officially complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents hope the investigation will provide answers and accountability.<\/p>\n
“Find out what’s going on, why they’re not paying the bills,” Van Volkenburg said. “And jail time if possible and necessary for these people that are screwing us over.”<\/p>\n
Management Has Not Responded<\/p>\n
Sources tell us that Tim Finegan, the son of the founder of Erie Independence House, is the organization’s current manager.<\/p>\n
Erie News Now contacted Finegan for comment but had not received a response as of publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents of three Erie Independence House facilities are expressing fear and uncertainty after learning the buildings where they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[110406,136,138,110404,137,110407,38328,110408,18524,8432,110405],"class_list":["post-260215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-disability-housing","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-independence-house","tag-erie-news","tag-hud-investigation","tag-independent-living","tag-maintenance-issues","tag-property-tax","tag-residents","tag-tax-sale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}